Pleasing in the Sight of the Lord?

I haven’t been doing much writing lately because well, I’ve been busy with a lot of things (far too many to go into detail about). However, even though I haven’t been doing a lot of writing, I’ve been doing a lot of listening. As I’ve been reading through the Old Testament lately, I keep hearing this from the Lord…

“Can’t have both and expect full blessing.”

Out of context, you might not understand what this means so let me explain.

I’m reading through the book of Second Kings—the book that explains the history of the kings of Judah and Israel. Each chapter, and sometimes even within the same chapter, we learn who was the king of Judah and who was the king of Israel, whose child they were, how long they reigned, who their enemies were or were not, and how long they lived. All those things are important; however, the most important thing was whether the king did “evil in the sight of the Lord” or “was pleasing to the Lord.”

Many kings did evil in the sight of the Lord. Their reigns were marked by issues—even if their reign was long. Sometimes, God at times chose to use wicked kings against His own people to try and wake up his stubborn people.

Some of the kings tried their best to do what was pleasing to the Lord. Despite their personal choices, they failed to step up and speak in to the culture. They failed to tear down idols and to tell the people to stop worshipping other gods creating many problems, and they did not receive God’s full blessing.

Reading the accounts in Second Kings has caused me to ask myself a couple of questions:

1) Is there anything in my life I have not destroyed?2) How are the choices of those in charge affecting my life? What can I do about it?

When the kings allowed idolatry in their land, the people suffered. Enemies came against them, famine ensued, and people lived unholy lives. The people probably felt more cursed than blessed, and because they didn’t know or want to rely solely on God, they felt hopeless and grasped for everything and anything to get them out of their despair.

I often wonder whether we will ever have a place on earth again that does what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord without anyone bowing down to any other idols or sacrificing to other gods.

Full blessing does not come without complete obedience. Complete obedience takes commitment and courage. Individually, to do what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord is possible but telling others to stop doing something that is not pleasing to the Lord is much more difficult. But, it must be done. How can we accomplish this?

Start first with yourself.

Just as I’ve asked the Lord if there is anything I haven’t destroyed in my life, ask God the same question for yourself.

After examining your own life, figure out where God wants you to be to impact the culture. How can He use you to speak truth into the lives of those who are making decisions for your family, your community, your church, your workplace, and your friend group? We can either choose to throw up our hands in surrender to the culture around us or we can choose to throw up our hands in surrender to the King.

Let us be people who don’t hold onto the wrong things. Let us be people who hold tightly to the Lord and who are brave enough to break down the things that are evil in the sight of the Lord. People may not even realize the idols they are chasing so let’s also be wise and not break down people.